Tangled Tracks on Side B

Chapter 3

The Halloween school dance was coming up in a couple of weeks and the morning air was cooling down significantly.

I had to dig into Nathan's closet to find the '90s bomber jean jacket I was looking for, it was technically my mom Laura's but she had let us kids have it and it would constantly rotate between our closets.

I had seen a picture of my mom wearing it from when she was young, it looked still just as good, just slightly softer and saggier from all of the years, it was oversize enough to look good on the boys too, a wonderful piece.

-

The day had gone by pretty uneventfully right up until the moment I was, as per usual, the last one leaving the locker rooms.

Except, I wasn't.

"Is this yours?"

I couldn't pinpoint whose voice it was, I turned around.

Sadie was holding my mom's jacket out toward me.

She was wearing her cheer uniform top and regular jeans, clearly halfway through getting ready to go home.

"Oh, thank you," I furrowed my eyebrows reaching for the garment.

How could I have forgotten about it?

"Where is it from? I've been looking for something similar."

Her voice was warm and deeper than I had expected, had I never heard her speak before?

"Uhm, it's old, I-"

"Where do you go thrifting?" She tilted her head, she seemed amused by something.

"My grandparents' houses usually," I tried to sound way more confident than I felt right then, "I'm Angelica by the way," I said as if that was a way for me to both start and end the conversation at the same time.

"I know."

Her full lips played a soft smile and I felt the physical urge to step back.

"Good, I'll see you around, thanks again." I lifted the jacket slightly and stepped out of the room.

I wanted to run but my legs knew better and I walked all the way to my mom's car with the whole scene replaying nonstop in my head over ad over again, I must've sounded so dumb.

Why was I so uncomfortable? That had never happened to me before.

"Where are the boys?" I looked around, they weren't usually late if they could skip the bus home.

"Tyler's? Andrew's? I'm not sure, your mom knows," Mom Laura explained.

"Can we stop for ice cream?" I tried.

"Is everything okay?" She checked concerned.

I hummed with a nod, "I just feel like ice cream."

She smiled and started the car, she would've never said no to ice cream.

We were sitting at a small table with the sundae we'd share between us, chocolate sauce and peanut crumbles dripping off of the cup.

"How was school?" She tried again.

"School was normal, I need to study a bunch tonight," I warned her.

"Is that what's been stressing you out?" Her voice was soft now, the way you speak to a wild animal you don't want to scare off.

I took a deep breath and thought about it.

I told her half-truths about my concerns, I told her about how everybody in school cared so much about their looks and other people's appearance, and how I wasn't sure how to make meaningful connections with people that already knew who I was because of the boys.